In college he made a record that shines to this
day. He was given the coveted cadet adjutancy of his corps. He
graduated second in a class of forty-six. And he did not receive a
single demerit during his entire college career--for rusty gun, or cap
on the floor, or late at drill, or twisted belt,--or any of the hundred
and one things that are the bane and stumbling block of the West
Pointer's existence. Such a record seems almost too good to be true,
and one is tempted to wish for at least one escapade to enliven the
narrative!
Yet Lee was by no means a prig. Even his detractors of later years
never accused him of that. He was popular with his fellows and fond of
the give-and-take of the drill ground. His ability to make and hold
friends was one of the outstanding traits of his whole life. His men
who followed him through the "Lost Cause" fairly idolized him.
General Joseph E. Johnson, another Southern leader, was a classmate of
his at West Point and gives us this description of him there. "We had
the same intimate associates, who thought, as I did, that no other
youth or man so united the qualities that win warm friendship and
command high respect. For he was full of sympathy and kindness, genial
and fond of gay conversation, and even of fun, while his correctness of
demeanor and attention to all duties, personal and official, and a
dignity as much a part of himself as the elegance of his person, gave
him a superiority that every one acknowledged in his heart.
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